Canada's Data Liberation Initiative

The objective of this project was to document why and how Statistics Canada decided to start sharing microdata with researchers. The experience of Statistics Canada is rich with lessons for other agencies. Statistics Canada faced the same technical, legal, ethical, and resource constraints as most agencies embarking on similar initiatives now face. This working paper was commissioned to provide an "advocacy reference document" to promote more open microdata access policies.

Project status:

Closed

Sponsor(s):

World Bank Development Grant Facility, Grant No 4001010-06, administered by the PARIS21 Secretariat at OECD

The Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) is a Canadian program that provides Canadian post-secondary institutions affordable access to Statistics Canada data resources. This paper describes the project and key success factors so that other agencies may determine its applicability to their own situations.